Roy Berko - Page 40

Verb Ballets' SUMMER SERIES was, with the exception of the opening number, a pleasant, if not compelling evening of dance.

The Shaw Festival is one of the two major Canadian theatre celebrations, the other being The Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario. Both are professional high quality venues.

Sean Derry and Alanna Romansky, co-directors of none too fragile theater, have a knack for picking scripts that insight and excite. They reach for creating dissonance in the minds of the audience. In their short existence, the theatre has taken on the Israeli-Palestine conflict, racial hatred, and now unionism and big business. No wonder the venue bills itself as 'Akron and Northeast Ohio's home for kick-a** theater!.'

Nothing but admirable praise can be heaped on Eric van Baars and his Porthouse cast of FIDDLER. This absolutely must see production is everything one would want in the creation of the tribute to a way of life destroyed, but lived! L'Chaim!

Clyde Simon, the Artistic Director of convergence-continuum, never steers clear of in-your-face, lurid language-laced scripts. He has used this formula to consistently fill his theatre with cult patrons who are drawn to Simon's tastes. SELF DEFENSE OR DEATH OF SOME SALESMEN is a typical con-con offering.

On July 13, 1953, Sir Alec Guiness walked onto a stage located in a large tent in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, and spoke the first lines of what has become the internationally-recognized celebration of theatre known as The Stratford Festival. Now housed in five theatres, offering plays and other entertainment from late April to November, it is the largest repertoire theatre in North America. The theatrical offerings are not only the writings of Shakespeare, but a variety of classical and contemporary works, including musicals.

Shakespeare's MEASURE FOR MEASURE gets a solid production at the Stratford Festival. Its message of mercy, justice and their relationship to pride and humility is clearly etched. Those who like the Shakespearean style of writing and plot development should be pleased with this staging.

Stratford's THE THREE MUSKETEERS is a melodramatic delight filled with swashbuckling action, farcical interludes, and bigger than life characters. It tells the triumphant tale of good winning out over evil. The production should delight those who want to escape the real world and live out the fantasies of days gone by.

LEONARD BERNSTEIN is a compelling evening of discovery which exposes not only the life of a real person, but is an intriguing probe into the world of music and life in the arts. This is a must see for anyone interested in music and theatre.

Little did Artistic Director Pat Ciamacco realize when he elected to produce Reginald Rose's 12 ANGRY MEN that his selection would be fortuitous. How could he have known that the Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman trials would be the major news stories, with the latter being decided the day Blank Canvas's production opened.

You know you aren't in for the typical Broadway musical, when, at the start of SPAMALOT, now on stage at Beck Center, a historian gives a brief overview of medieval England and a Finnish village appears with dancers slapping each other with dead fish as they perform the 'Fisch Schlapping Song.' That opening, complete with women knocking down their male partners, is just the start of the bizarre goings on.

SHREK is a creative script. The Mercury Summer Stock production will delight many. This is a community theatre production, and, a fairly acceptable one.

A musical review, by the very nature of its structure, is usually not of great interest to those theatre-goers who want a story line or an over-riding theme. Someone attends a musical review because there is a tuneful style or type of music that you like or there are some singers performing who you want to hear.

THE BOOK OF MORMON is an absolute go see production for anyone who is not a language prude or a religious fanatic. It is filled with total delight, magical showmanship, a marvelous score, creative dancing and fine staging. It's everything a modern musical that is meant for pure entertainment, with a sip of philosophy, should be!

Under the directing abilities of Terri Kent, the Porthouse production of SOUTH PACIFIC makes for a fine evening of summer entertainment.

MEDEA, a masterpiece example of classical tragedy, is one of the Western world's greatest plays. It is a daunting undertaking. Some directorial decisions and story interpretation in this staging seem questionable, but the production is blessed with a brilliant performance by Tracee Patterson. It's worth going just to see this amazing actress spin her maniacal magic.

Have you looked at a painting and asked, 'What does that mean?' What would the world be like without the arts? Does art have to have meaning? Does the learning of artistic technique thwart a painter's discovery and creativity? What happens when a group of uneducated, unsophisticated men are encouraged to let their emotions create their world? These and many more questions are confronted in Lee Hall's THE PITMEN PAINTERS, now on stage at Beck Center.

CROWNS tells an important story of perseverance and faith among the women of the Southern African American community, as represented by their 'hatitude.' The Karamu production, which has some strong performances, is somewhat tarnished by some directorial decisions, but is worth seeing.

Musicals have come from various sources. There has been the tale of an illiterate flower girl who was transformed into a proper woman (MY FAIR LADY), a Biblical Jewish youth who became a leader in Egypt (JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT), a prince who kept searching for his corner of the sky until he realized that it was right where he was (PIPPIN), and a big nosed sassy New York girl who transformed herself into a famous vaudeville star (FUNNY GIRL).